What Goes Up
by amandajbruce
Summary: In which Oliver and Lilly try to teach Miley to juggle. Set during the first season.


A/N: This is set during the episode where the trio tries to raise money for the United Peoples Relief Fund. I think it was "Money for Nothing, Guilt for Free." Anyway, Oliver and Lilly both know how to juggle, but we never see Miley juggle, so in my world, she does not know how. I actually did learn how to juggle in the second grade, but I never got passed the silk scarf part of the lesson. Haha.

What Goes Up

"The trick is to keep the ball in the air at all times." Oliver watched as all three of the plastic aforementioned balls fell to the floor. They bounced a little on the wooden deck outside of the Stewarts' house and he sighed. "Miley, you only have to keep one up at a time, not all three."

"Wow, thanks, Oliver. I had no idea it was as easy as makin' sure one ball stayed in the air." Miley pulled a rubber band from her wrist and pulled her long curls back in to a ponytail. The humidity was starting to make her hair frizz, and she wanted to be sure she kept it out of the way of the juggling lessons. There was also the need for her to do something with her hands. If she did not keep them busy, she was going to hit him, hard. Then they would be down a juggler, and Lilly would blame her if they did not beat Amber and Ashley at raising the most money.

"Let's try again."

"Oliver, I've tried four times!"

"It took me and Lilly a week to learn how to juggle in the second grade. Try again." Oliver calmly picked up the colorful spheres from where they had rolled under the patio chairs. There were roughly a dozen of them scattered across the deck in blues, greens, reds, yellows… Oliver was beginning to feel like he had escaped one of those ball pits they had for little kids. He lightly tossed Miley the red one in his hand, which she just managed to catch before it smacked her in the nose.

"Can I try with just two first?" She pouted a little and looked doubtfully at the object now clutched in her left hand.

"That's what I told you to do, but no. You thought juggling would be so easy." His eyes rolled and Oliver tossed a blue one in her direction.

"Well, you and Lilly made it look so easy." Miley's brow furrowed and she awkwardly bought her arms around the ball, pulling it to her chest in an effort to catch it.

"You say that like I'm not good at anything." He glanced at the girl as she rolled the small globes around in her hands.

"You do fall down a lot. And the baseball team did tell you to never set foot on the field again."

"The bat slipped! It could have happened to anybody!" Oliver's hands flew into the air in protest, and the other balls he had been holding soared from his fingers. He winced when he heard a few notes play out on the piano just inside. One of them must have made it through the open door.

"Why did a ball almost hit me in the face? I thought we agreed to start Miley off with something lighter, like those scarf things your mom likes to wear when she's off duty." Lilly's blond head poked around the door, the tip of her French braid resting on her shoulder. She cautiously stepped out on to the patio.

"That was all Oliver." Miley pointed to the boy who was now slowly lowering his arms back down to his sides.

"Like I said, it could happen to anybody," was his only response.

Lilly smiled and then asked him, "So, really, scarves?"

"My mom wouldn't let me take any of hers. She said I shouldn't play with pastels." There was a pause before Oliver commented, "I don't really know what she meant by that, and I don't know if I want to."

Lilly decided to ignore Oliver while he thought about his mom's accessories and turned to Miley. "Okay, let me see how far you guys got." She watched as Miley began by tossing the red ball into the air, straight up, then forgot to catch it when she threw the blue one. "So, you didn't do anything? This is how I left you guys over an hour ago when my mom made me come home and clean my room!"

"Miley doesn't follow instructions very well." A glare was thrown in her direction.

"Hey! Oliver's just not a good teacher." Miley crossed her arms in front of her and returned his glare.

"And you think Oliver and I fight too much?" Lilly questioned dryly. When Miley and Oliver both turned their cold eyes in her direction, Lilly hastily picked up one of the plastic spheres from the floor and said, "Why don't I try to show you?"

She effortlessly tossed first one, and then another into the air. Oliver tossed a third into Lilly's path, murmuring his approval when it joined the arc, traveling from one hand to the next seamlessly.

"The trick is…" Lilly started.

"To keep one ball in the air! I know!" Miley was exasperated.

"I was going to say to make sure everything you throw follows the same path. Then, you don't have to move your hands that much." The blond shrugged her shoulders at Miley's expression.

"That makes a lot more sense." The glare was again aimed at Oliver.

"Here," Oliver found another ball on the chair next to him and handed it to Miley. "Try just one."

"I thought the whole point of juggling was that you had more than one."

"It is, but you want to get the movement right first," Lilly told Miley. She and Oliver then crouched slightly to the left before doing some sort of wave motion with their bodies to the right. Lilly did not drop any of the circles she had traveling with her.

"What," laughter interrupted the sentence, "was" followed by some gasping for air, "that?" Miley was laughing so hard, she could barely stand up, and one of her hands was clutching the table for support. "You, and then he, and movement. Haha."

"Mr. Calhoun's first lesson. I skipped it because I thought you would laugh." Oliver sighed and it was Lilly's turn to roll her eyes.

"It probably didn't look as stupid in the second grade," Lilly remarked.

"I have a feeling that always looked stupid," Miley responded, still laughing.

"It might look stupid, but it's effective." Lilly's voice rose, but Oliver remained silent, plopping down on to the chair under which he had recently retrieved a ball. He decided it was time for Lilly to deal with their other best friend.

"Fine, fine." Miley took a deep breath, giving herself a mental shake. She crouched down to her left and began to mimic what had looked to her like some sort of cheesy eighties dance move, but then dissolved into giggles all over again.

"This is just like when we tried to teach her to surf," Oliver muttered.

"I know. No focus," Lilly agreed. She then turned back to Miley, dropping the plastic balls she had been holding on to the top of the table. Her hands on her hips, Lilly addressed her best female friend, "do you want to beat Amber and Ashley or not? You said we needed a gimmick to get more people to donate! This was your idea!"

"Okay, okay." Miley groaned. "I'm trying."

***

An hour went by, and they were on lesson thirty seven (skipping lessons five, six, and seven, because those all involved the use of silk scarves), but Miley was still horrible.

"Maybe she should juggle food," Lilly whispered to Oliver while they watched a ball hit Miley in the head for the third time in five minutes. "She won't want to waste it, and she'll try harder to catch it."

"No, that's what would work for me. Miley'll just ruin a ton of perfectly good food," Oliver whispered back.

"I heard that," Miley called to the two of them, then dodged another ball.

"How about eggs?" Oliver wondered aloud.

"Eggs?" Miley echoed in disbelief.

"Oliver, sometimes, you're brilliant!" Lilly clapped a hand briefly to his shoulder before running inside.

"Eggs?" Miley repeated.

"Yeah." Oliver was smiling in a way she did not like.

"Why eggs?" She practically yelled in his direction. He was still lounging in his chair, feet propped up on the railing of the deck.

'So you won't drop them, duh." Oliver looked at Miley as though she had just asked him if he really did like cake.

"But I drop everything I try to juggle."

"Yes, but if you drop these, you'll have to change your clothes or redo your make-up. And, your dad'll probably make you scrub down the whole deck," Lilly told her. She had a carton of eggs in her hand when she walked out of the glass doors. She handed the carton to Oliver who quickly took out two and began to juggle. "Watch. See, he throws up the one in his left hand, but just to the other direction so he can move the one in his right hand to the left. You try."

"I think I'll just watch for a minute," Miley muttered, apprehensive at the thought of getting yolks on her very new, and very cute, tank top. "Hey Oliver," she added, hoping to distract her friends, "how many can you juggle at one time? Like, what's the most you've done?"

"Five," he told the two girls proudly.

"You cannot juggle five," Lilly cried in disbelief. And they were off.

"Yes, I can!"

"No you can't. We only learned up to three."

"I practiced."

"I've never seen you."

"Watch! Throw them to me." He moved to stand and braced his feet, waiting for Lilly to add the eggs one at a time. In order to keep them all in the air, Oliver was forced to throw the eggs much higher than they had been throwing the plastic spheres for Miley. Lilly's eyes were wide as she watched him work, anticipating with every toss that he would end up with egg on his face, but he was actually much better than she thought.

"Oh, yeah. I should run away and join the circus." Oliver said to the girls once Lilly had added a sixth egg.

"Yeah, but not because you can juggle eggs," Lilly needled. Miley giggled and the two of them watched him go for a few minutes. "Okay, that's enough. You proved you can do it. Toss me two." She deftly caught them when he whipped them in her direction. "Your turn," Lilly said, handing them to Miley.

Miley sighed, but did as she was instructed. She mistakenly trusted that Lilly and Oliver were right. On the bright side, she only ended up with egg on her shoes since she managed to step back just in time. It was Oliver who ended up with a fist full of shell and yolk when he attempted to catch two eggs in one hand, pushing them together with a crunch.

Miley began hosing down the deck, hoping to spray away all traces of the eggs before her father got home.

"Maybe juggling wasn't the best idea," Lilly grudgingly admitted. "Miley, have you ever tried spinning plates?"

"What, did you two go to circus camp or something and never tell me?"


End file.
